


a crack in everything

by SpontaneouslyAWOL



Series: A Compilation of Short Stories [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Demons, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, possession (implied) of a sort, what is this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-12
Updated: 2017-04-12
Packaged: 2018-10-17 23:13:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10604280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpontaneouslyAWOL/pseuds/SpontaneouslyAWOL
Summary: Briar falls asleep in a cemetery and wakes up with an unwanted passenger. No one knows what to do about it (if they can do anything at all). In the end, nothing gets done.





	

By the time he was nineteen, Briar had been in more uncomfortable situations than he cared to think about. Only two, however, had been as uncomfortable as being locked in a cemetery with what was almost certainly a demon.

In his defence, the whole “locked in” part had been an accident. At least once a fortnight, Briar visited his mother’s grave. It gave him both time and privacy to relax and gather his thoughts, commodities hard to come by since Nikolai’s Turning five months ago. Today, however, the combination of warm sunshine, late nights, and the peaceful atmosphere of the cemetery had resulted in him dozing off against the headstone. He had only woken when his phone buzzed with an inquiry from Caron, the sky streaked with quickly-fading oranges and purples. As it was, leaning against a headstone with an aching neck and an unwanted companion, he half-regretted waking up.

The demon seemed unaware of his presence. It lurked among the rows at the head of the field, an unnaturally tall, stooped figure in tattered, fluttering garments. Every so often it bent to inspect a headstone or flower arrangement. The distance and lack of light obscured its features, but the long, beak-like protrusion on its face, as well as the misshapen back, its fingers – abnormally long and spindly, with far too many joints, visible even from his position – and the general aura of otherworldly despair implied that that was most likely a good thing.

Carefully keeping his gaze averted, Briar did his best to ignore it as he checked his phone was on silent. Demons were primarily embodiments of humanity’s negative emotions, contrary to their depictions in modern pop culture as evil spirits or hellish tormentors. Despite their popularity, though, few could sense their presence, let alone actually see them. The ones who could were almost always part of the supernatural community, and they mostly knew better than to attract their attention. Either way, it would be better to avoid its notice, and a ringing phone would undoubtedly draw interest. Ignorance was bliss when it came to demons. They might generally leave the Sightless alone, but there were always those who didn’t.

Moving as little as possible, he hastily texted Sebastian. Nikolai and Catina were out on business, and while Caron may have contacted him first, Sebastian was the only one with a working car. He also had the advantage of being able to walk under the sun, no matter how faint it was.

_Evac @ bot cemetery ASAP_

After a few seconds, he added, _demon pls hurry_.

A response popped up almost as soon as he pressed send. _OMG OMW ;A;_

He switched the screen off, then stilled. It could have been the sudden silence. It could have been the realisation that he couldn’t see the demon anymore. It could have been the chill puff of rancid breath through his hair. It could have been the beak-like shadow reflected in his phone screen. It could have been the six-fingered grip on his shoulder, the many-jointed appendages wrapping around his upper arm, sharp pricks of pain indicating that yes, those were talons. It was almost certainly the awareness of the demon was standing directly behind him, only his mother’s headstone between them.

Briar figured this was as good a time as any to temporarily lift his mental ban on swearing.

The demon’s voice was softer than he expected, barely above a whisper. It hissed through the air, clicking in the back of its throat and whistling on the exhale. “You see me.”

Ignorance was bliss, except for when it’s not. Briar bit the inside of his cheek and privately started composing his eulogy. His heartbeat thrummed in his ears. It was very distracting.

The demon shifted. The ragged edge of its clothing brushed against the back of his neck. Something small and squirming fell to hang, trapped, between his collar and his skin. A shudder rippled down his spine.

“Words of no consequence,” the demon continued when the silence stretched out. “You, child. There is a hole in your heart.”

This was probably a bad time to interrupt and say that Briar had no idea what it was talking about. He really wished Sebastian was here.

Actually, no. Avi, definitely. His mentor knew everything. She’d know what to do when a demon grabbed your shoulder and talked about your heart.

“- very large hole.” The demon either ignored or didn’t notice his slip of attention. “Not at all. A crack. But there it is, enough it is, here are you, here am I.”

Briar swallowed heavily. He tasted ash. It burned his mouth and scraped down his throat. “What –”

“Hush, child. No speaking.” The fingers around his shoulder tightened. He was abruptly snatched to the side, phone skittering across the grass, as the demon’s other palm pressed into his back. Its touch burned. Inside his chest, something gave way. Briar barely choked back a scream before his vision went black.

* * *

 

The first thing he noticed was the warmth. He was lying on his back, something soft and fluffy draped over him. He distantly realised that Sebastian had picked him up.

The second thing he noticed was that a light was shining onto his face. His eyes watered instinctively. He groggily dragged an arm up to block it.

The third thing was the argument to his left. It sounded like Nikolai, and who he thought was Artemis, but they were supposed to be busy elsewhere, not due back for another few days. Briar peered up and confirmed that yes, it was them. There was no mistaking Artemis’ vivid green coat.

“Seriously, Artemis, I knew what - Briar!” Nikolai beamed when he noticed him watching. “How do you feel?”

His back twinged faintly, but he ignored it. “I’m fine, but – I thought you were supposed to get here on Monday?”

“We did. It’s Tuesday morning.” Nikolai tilted his head and squinted. “You sure? Avi said you’d be okay, but Sebastian was pretty worried.”

Artemis scoffed. “Sebastian, he says. You’re the one who insisted we leave at ten.”

“Well, yes, but you were worried too!” He defended. Briar frowned at him, confused. Last he checked, it was Saturday. How could it be Tuesday already? “You can’t –”

“In the _morning_ ," Artemis snapped. “Don’t tell me you forgot, I already had to drag you back in –”

“Oh, come on, it was an accident, I wasn’t –”

“Why were you even awake, you’re _nocturnal,_ as you insist on –”

“It’s not like I asked for –”

“Right, yes, the _unintentional_ –”

“I wasn’t _serious_ –”

“You _literally_ told a _vampire_ to _bite you,_ why am I not –”

“I didn’t _know_ she –”

“Because bigoted language like that always –”

“It’s been months, Artemis, just let it _die_ –”

“Well, when you do stupid –”

“Not that often –”

“You make me worry for your continued survival - _oh, wait_ –”

“Okay, that’s just mean.”

“ _Good_.”

“Wait, wait,” Briar interrupted hastily, struggling to a sitting position. The two could argue about Nikolai’s terrible life choices for hours. “What do you mean, Tuesday?”

With one last glare, Artemis turned to Briar. “Before we tell you, what do you remember?”

Briar scratched the back of his neck. It tingled strangely, like something had crawled across it. “I fell asleep at the cemetery and woke up past closing time. The gates were already locked, so I texted Sebastian, because he has a car and could pick the lock if I couldn’t climb the fence. I must have fallen asleep again, though, because I don’t remember him arriving.”

“That matches up with what he said,” Artemis agreed. “But you seem to have forgotten a few things. According to Caron, Sebastian ran in Saturday evening with you unconscious in his car, saying you’d texted him about a demon in the botanical cemetery. By the time he got there, there was no sign of it, but you were passed out and wouldn’t wake up. Your shirt had a hole burned into it, but you were technically unharmed.”

Briar squeezed his eyes shut, rubbing his temples. Artemis’ words were accompanied by flashes of memory – a hunched silhouette, an inhuman hand on his shoulder, something wriggling on his neck, a rasping, clicking, hissing voice, burning pain, something shifting in his chest. “I – I remember,” he murmured.

Nikolai reached forward to rest a cold hand on the back of his neck. The itching feeling faded. “Do you recall it saying anything? Anything at all?”

“I think... something about a hole? Or a crack, I’m not...” he sighed. “I’m sorry, I can’t...”

“Don’t worry about it,” Nikolai told him, Artemis nodding seriously. “It’s not your fault. Avi confirmed it, too, and you know how she is with this sort of thing.”

“Where is everyone?” Briar glanced around the room again. It took a moment, but he eventually recognised it as one of the guest bedrooms in Caron's home. “That is, who's here?”

“Just us. The others are either working or out.”

“Is Sebastian all right?” If he had stumbled across Briar’s unconscious self after a text about a demon, he’d be either incredibly worried, disturbed, or guilty for arriving late. All of the above, really.

“Avi’s with him.” Nikolai leaned back and waved a hand. “He freaked out when he found you, but she’s doing the therapy thing. You know how it is. He’ll be fine.”

That was reassuring. Thinking of the doctor, Artemis' earlier phrasing fully registered. “And what do you mean by ‘technically’ unharmed?”

The older two paused and stared at each other. Briar waited impatiently as they non-verbally argued over something, pulling faces, wiggling eyebrows, and shooting pointed looks. Eventually, Artemis sighed, and Nikolai bent to pick something up. It was the shirt he had been wearing on Saturday, the one with a hole burned through it. “Well, physically, you’re in one piece, no weird additions or losses,” Nikolai hedged. He flipped the shirt around to display a baseball-sized hole burned through the back. The edges were singed black, but the rest of the garment seemed unharmed. Briar’s back stung in remembrance. “Emotionally you seem fine, mentally in one piece… it’s just that – well…”

“You have a demon living in your head,” Artemis said bluntly.

Briar stared at him.

“Artemis!” Nikolai hissed. “ _Tact_!”

“This isn’t exactly something to be _tactful_ about. _How_ can you be tactful?”

“Maybe you could have phrased it a bit more delicately –”

“‘Oh, dreadfully sorry, but it appears that your headspace has recently acquired a new lodger. Don’t worry, though, it’s still asleep and won’t stir until you encounter life-threatening danger, which you will _obviously_ never do, considering our lifestyles, at which point it’ll most likely take over your body and destroy half the city.’ Yes, that’s _so_ much better.”

“I just meant –”

“In my head?” Briar interrupted queasily. He thought of the demon, the pain, ‘take over your body and destroy half the city’, and shuddered. “It’s – inside me?”

“Well, ‘head’ is more a euphemism.” Nikolai pointedly turned away from Artemis, who rolled his eyes. “It’s more… converted to an alternate form that resonated with your personal energy or something, then wriggled into your… aura… heart… something. It used pre-existing cracks and holes, which naturally form with age and experiences, which explains the whole hole-in-your-heart you mentioned it mentioned, and filled a bunch which it probably a good thing. I think. Most of the explanation went over my head, honestly, you’d have to talk to Avi when she gets back – but essentially, yes. It is inside you. Which I mean literally, and not as –”

“Avi says she can’t get it out, she doesn’t know anyone who can, Alex might but she still hasn’t come back from that family event and won’t for another month, and apparently there’s a grace period of seventeen hours, which has already passed. If we try now, we risk irreparable damage, possibly death. We can do nothing.” Artemis shrugged. “Congratulations on your new partnership, at death you might part but we’re not holding our breath.”

“You have a real gift for capturing the essence of conversation,” Nikolai told him.

“Thank you.”

“It’s not as bad as it sounds, though.” Nikolai seemed very flippant, considering the subject matter, Briar thought. “It’s dormant, and will remain so until something like incredibly danger or a world-shaking event wakes it up. It might try and take control of your body, but you were here first, so you have the home advantage, as it were. It won’t actually destroy half the city, just provide you with some sort of power boost you can use to annihilate the enemy. Jury’s out on whether pithy commentary is included.”

“I see.” Briar gazed at his folded hands.

“Also, compliments on the new tattoo.”

“What?”

Artemis gestured at the shirt hanging from Nikolai’s arm. “Where the hole was, on your back. You gained a tattoo instead of a burn mark. Looks Faustian. Very aesthetic.” He paused, stared at Briar, and added, “you’re taking this very calmly for someone who told them they have a manifestation of humanity’s negativity lurking in them.”

“It might be the drugs,” Nikolai suggested. “Avi poured that drink down his throat earlier, the one that smelt like burnt poppy seeds? She did say it’d kick in if he was in danger of setting the curtains on fire.”

“Demons are more a specific emotion or concept, such as despair, rage or revenge, than negativity in general,” Briar corrected absently. “And I haven’t accidentally committed arson since Sebastian threw a flamingo at me.” Now that it was mentioned, he did feel rather disconnected from the situation, feeling better than most would when confronted with such a transformative impact on their identity.

“Ah, the flamingo,” Nikolai muttered. “That was exciting. Also concerning, considering that was barely two weeks ago.”

Artemis sighed and stood up. “You should probably get some more rest,” he advised. “I believe you’re still adapting to the sudden internal demonic presence. Avi should be coming by in a couple of minutes, so if you need anything, you can ask her.”

“Caron should be back, too, so if you need to speak with our lord and master, he’s available.” Nikolai pushed Briar’s shoulders until he was lying down properly, then leaned forward to peer into his eyes. “Artemis is right. You should sleep,” he murmured. His voice was remarkably soothing, echoing in his ears. Despite feeling perfectly awake just a moment ago, Briar felt his eyelids grow heavy. Nikolai had very dark eyes, Briar noted fuzzily. It felt like he had never really noticed until now. They gleamed brightly in the artificial light. Paired with the voice, it was curiously hypnotic. “Just close your eyes, and think of – oh, I don’t know, nature. Trees. Flowers. A gentle breeze, and warm sunlight, and distant birdsong, and the soft grass beneath you…”

**Author's Note:**

> I never understood the appeal of late-night writing until last night. Unfortunately, that also means that I have no idea what this is?


End file.
